Prediction: This Could Be This Company's Next Billion-Dollar Product

Denmark-based biotech Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) is a longtime leader in the diabetes drug market. Some of the company's products in this area, such as Rybelsus and Ozempic, continue to be successful. However, one of Novo Nordisk's strengths beyond its solid lineup is its ability to innovate. The company's pipeline is full of exciting programs.

One in particular, icodec, looks destined to become a major growth driver for Novo Nordisk. Let's look at icodec's recent results from clinical trials and what they may mean for Novo Nordisk's future.

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A potential once-weekly insulin product

Novo Nordisk held a 47.1% share of the worldwide insulin market as of May. But the company's revenue from this segment has been declining lately. During the first half of the year, Novo Nordisk's insulin sales dropped by 3% year over year in Danish Kroner (DKK) to 27.3 billion DKK, or roughly $3.6 billion.

The decline is partly due to government-imposed pricing pressures in various countries, including China, a market of about 120 million diabetes patients. These issues have impacted other major players in the insulin market, including Eli Lilly and Sanofi. A brand-new and innovative insulin product could help Novo Nordisk increase its market share in this area.

That's where icodec comes in. It is a potential once-weekly insulin option for people with diabetes. Novo Nordisk has been running clinical trials for icodec under a program named ONWARDS. And it recently released data from a phase 3a study in the fifth clinical trial of that program. It enrolled 1,085 insulin-naive type 2 diabetes patients -- that is, those who have never received insulin regularly before -- and some received once-daily basal insulin while others received icodec once a week for 52 weeks.